Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Greek and Roman Gods

Gods

Major Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses

 Greek                                                                                      Roman

Aphrodite                                                                                 Venus
Apollo                                                                                      Apollo
Ares                                                                                         Mars
Artemis                                                                                    Diana
Athena                                                                                     Minerva
Demeter                                                                                   Ceres
Hades                                                                                     Pluto
Hephaistos                                                                             Vulcan
Hera                                                                                        Juno
Hermes                                                                                    Mercury                                  
Hestia                                                                                      Vesta  
Kronos                                                                                     Saturn
Persephone                                                                            Proserpina
Poseidon                                                                                 Neptune

Zeus                                                                                        Jupiter
Workshop One  (Notes)
Tasks 
Discussed Tasks that have been completed

(Note all completed tasks to be emailed through to hallissey@xtra.co.nz so that they can be placed on the blog

Awesome job Team on your research now can we share it???
·      
    Gods Info ( to be emailed through from Nick and Caleb – Roman and Greek God equivalents
·         Publishing Companies  (Emma and Grace to email info logos through)
·         Mythological gods/goodess pics (Andrew and Luke to email through)
·        Brother Grimm Fairy Tales ( Shannah to email through )
·         Hans Christian Anderson (to email through by Cian)


Other Things Dicussed :
75th Annivesary of the Caldecott Medal in 2013
(named after Randolph Caldecott)

What is the Caldecott Medal ?
Recognises and awards the most distinguished American picture book for children

Familiar Title Winners
·        The Polar Express / Jumanjii - Chris Van Alsburg
·         Free Fall /  Tuesday  / The Three Pigs  David Wiesner
·        The Invention of Hugo Cabret  Brian Selznick

2 Illustrators who have won 2 Caldecott medals
·      David Wiesner he won three Caldecott Medals for solo picture books —Tuesday (1991),The Three Pigs (2001), and Flotsam (2007)
·       Marcia Brown Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, 1954,
  • Once a Mouse, 1961, Shadow, 1982 
  • NB: Maurice Sendank has been recognised for 7 Caldecott honors

Other points to note!!!
·      25th Anniversary of... We are going on a Bear Hunt
·      (by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury )
Walker Book are celebrating 25 years of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt 
·     
    45th Anniversary of The Hungary Caterpillar (by Eric Carle)
Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar first ate his way from baby caterpillar to beautiful butterfly 45 years ago and to celebrate the book's birthday, we have pulled together this gorgeous gallery of images. The Very Hungry Caterpillar has since been translated into over 55 languages and holds the honour of being the most read children's book in the UK
·         50th Anniversary of Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Harriet ia iconic children’s book heroine who observes friends, classmates, and neighbors – and holds nothing back in her notebook commentary – first came on the scene in 1964, when Harper & Row published Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy. The author followed up that debut novel with two others featuring Harriet’s friends: The Long Secret, released in 1965, and Sport, published posthumously in 1979 (Fitzhugh died of a brain aneurysm in 1974 at the age of 46). On February 25, Delacorte, which acquired the rights to Fitzhugh’s Harriet books in 2000, will issue a 50th anniversary edition of Harriet the Spy.

·          75th  Anniversary of Batman (DC Comics)
1939 was one of comics’ greatest years.  Arguably, the greatest single calendar year in the history of the American comic book industry as we know it today — or at least the most interesting, particularly when it comes to superhero comics.
It’s the year that the rest of the industry caught on in earnest to Superman’s rising success (first published in 1938).  It’s the year of the beginning of Marvel Comics — about which I’m sure we’ll hear much more from both inside and outside of the company, this year, 75 years later.
It’s the year of the debut of Flash and the Sandman from DC,
Because, Batman is 75 years old.March 30, 1939 is the date of publication of Detective Comics.
Categories that we are covering
Category
Who
WW1
Luke
WW2
Cian
Dectective /spy
Caleb
Orphans
Emma
Detective/Spy
Nick
Classics
Grace
Horses
Shannah
Heroes /Gods
Andrew

Tasks :  Refer to task sheet that has been emailed to you.

What are you reading ??? 

Keep Reading


Sunday, 6 April 2014

Friday 4 April

Session 7

We only have one more Lit Club session this term so it is really important for those students who are working towards their Bronze badges to get their reviews completed and also their author presentations. As soon as you have these prepared let Mrs earl or Siobhan know and we will find a space for you to present them.

This week we had author presentations from Cian and Cameron.

Cian presented on Michael Morpugo.


Here is the audio for the presentation.




This was an excellent presentation - very well prepared and well presented - Great job!

Cameron presented on Rick Riordan.
Watch this space as we will upload his presentation as soon as possible.

This Week's Book.
A Boy and A Bear in a Boat.
Dave Shelton

The story begins when the boy charters the boat and its captain the bear to take him across tot he other side. As the hours aboard the tiny boat, The Harriet, turn into days and weeks, the monotony is replaced with adventure, with sea monsters, storms and even a ghost ship.

A Boy and A Bear in a Boat, is an uplifting tale that delivers action and adventure in a gentle pace with quirky humour that is enhanced by author/ illustrators Dave Shelton's delightful illustrations. The story is essentially about friendship. The journey that the characters take as their bond is made is touching and every bit as engaging as their undying optimism and rituals of tea drinking and eating eccentric sandwiches is magical, and is juxtaposed beautifully with the boy's scepticism and humour.



Sunday, 30 March 2014

Friday 28 March

Another great session!
Once again we went over the blog and showed all the lit club members how to add a comment - we really want you to get involved on the blog so we have created an account for all members to use if you do not have a gmail account - please come and see Mrs Earl and she will give you the login and password.

Book Reviews
Please email your book reviews to Mrs Earl and she will place them on the blog. You can also let us know when you are ready to present your author if you are working towards your Lit Club bronze badge.


This Week's Book


The Dark - Lemony Snicket

You can watch the book trailer here.

Lemony Snicket has written many other books - Have you read any?

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). Snicket is the author of several children's biographies, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events (his best-known work) and appearing as a character within the series. Lemony Snicket was born before you were, and is likely to die before you as well. His family has roots in a part of the country which is now under water, and his childhood was spent in the relative splendor of the Snicket Villa, which has since become a factory, a fortress and a pharmacy and is now, alas, someone else's villa. His true birthplace and details about his family remain a mystery.


Do you know any other books written by Lemony Snicket? Let us know which ones you have read and whether you enjoyed them.


We introduced some Graphic Novels.


Graphic novels tell the story with pictures and text. We handed out a few graphic novels and are looking toward to hearing from you on the blog to see how you enjoyed them.









Sunday, 23 March 2014

Session Six - Friday March 21

Our blog
We had a good look around the blog on Friday and showed everyone where they can comment. All Lit club members are encouraged to get involved on the blog - we want to hear about what you are reading and we just have not time to hear from everyone at Lit Club on a Friday.

We are beginning to add the book reviews to the book review page so keep an eye on the changes and get involved!!

A notice has gone home to parents with a generic lit club email and password that the members can use to comment on the blog of parents are unhappy with setting up gmail accounts.

Summer Passports
For all those who handed in their summer passports we held a draw on Friday with some excellent prizes. @ people received $20 tines vouchers and 2 people received new sets of headphones.

Look - It's me and a book!
The Holiday photo draw was completed at Assembly with two prizes for Teams Rutherford and Sheppard and two prizes for Teams Batten and Hillary


This Week's  Book
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made
 written by Stephan Pastis

Watch the trailer here



In the style of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis follows a kid detective with a polar bear business partner.



“My name is Failure. Timmy Failure. I am the founder, President and CEO of the best detective agency in town, probably in the world. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is a historical record of my life as a detective. It has been rigorously fact-checked. All the drawings in here are by me. I tried to get my business partner to do the illustrations, but they were not good.”

Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done
 written by Stephan Pastis





The clueless, comically self-confident kid detective returns in a sequel to the New York Times bestseller Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

"When you lose hope, find it." —Timmy Failure

He doesn’t like to pull rank. To reveal that he’s this guy: Timmy Failure, founder, president, and CEO of the greatest detective agency in town, perhaps the nation. But he is. 

And he’s about to crack the biggest case of his generation: a school competition to find a stolen globe. It’s his ticket to bringing home a $500 prize, which is guaranteed to set him up for life. But someone is clearly trying to game the system. Hoodwink. Con. Defraud. So it’s up to Timmy Failure, with the dubious help of Total, his lazy polar-bear partner, and his unlikely new ally, eccentric Great-Aunt Colander, to find a way to avenge these shenanigans. Defeat this injustice.
If he can only get his entry form in on time.


Get involved!
Let us know what you are reading or what you want to read…
Let us know if there are any books that you would like us to introduce …
What else would you like to see happening at Lit Club?





Sunday, 16 March 2014

Session Five   - Friday 14th March 2014
 Students who have returned Summer Challenge passports and submitted  photos on the library windows for  the Holiday Competition will go in a draw and be drawn out next week at Assembly for the book voucher prizes.
Kids Lit Quiz
We are beginning to prepare for the Kids Lit Quiz. There will be two this year - The year 7/8's received a notice about this last week. The notice is available in the news centre of the school website. The Year 5/6 quiz will be held at school and we will invite Hoon Hay school to enter as well.

What did we talk about today?

Author Presentation : 

Amber and Maddison are working towards achieving their Bronze Lit Club badge and one of the requirements  is to present an author , which they did today .. Well done ladies on your presentation of L.M.Montgomery. Many Thanks

L.M. Montgomery ( Lucy Maud Montgomery) 

(Anne of Green Gables)

Key Facts :

Genre: Childrens Fiction

Born in 1874 in Prince Edward Island Canada (Died 1942)

Anne Green Gables was her first book (published in 1908)

Most widely known for her book , Anne of Green Gables and the following Anne books.

She has written many books but well known for the 8 books featuring the orphan Anne Shirley from Prince Edward Island.

Anne of Green Gables still a very popular childrens fiction choice throughout the world especially in Japan.

The setting for the Anne Books is Prince Edward Island in Canada

L.M. Montgomery never lived on Prince Edward Island again after her marriage in 1911. Yet, she immortalized this tiny province through her wonderful descriptions of life, nature, community, and people on Prince Edward Island. All but one of her 20 books are set on Prince Edward Island. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people, directly or indirectly influenced by the way of life she depicted in her writing, come to Prince Edward Island to see the place she loved so much..

This Week's Book is...

The 1999 Newbury Award Winner...

Holes
by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, "You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake." Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.

The trouble started when Stanley was accused of stealing a pair of shoes donated by basketball great Clyde "Sweetfeet" Livingston to a celebrity auction. In court, the judge doesn't believe Stanley's claim that the shoes fell from the sky onto his head. And yet, that's exactly what happened. Oddly, though, Stanley doesn't blame the judge for falsely convicting him. Instead, he blames the whole misadventure on his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Thanks to this benighted distant relative, the Yelnats family had been cursed for generations. For Stanley, his current troubles are just a natural part of being a Yelnats.

At Camp Green Lake, the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize that there is  more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake.. The boys are digging holes because the treacherous warden is searching for something, and before long Stanley begins his own search—for the truth.

Fate conspires to resolve it all—the family curse, the mystery of the holes, the drought that destroyed Green Lake, and also, the legend of Kissing Kate Barlow, an infamous outlaw of the Wild West.. The great wheel of justice has ground slowly for generations, but now it is about to reveal its verdict.  



This ibook that demonstrates  true friendship and not judge others by their looks - or their unfortunate mistakes in life.This book has  a personality of its own and humour.
ENJOY!!!

In the story Holes by Louis Sachar , what do you observe about the main characters surname??
STANLEY YELNATS

Lois Sachar,is also the author  of the Wayside School series, Sachar , knows how to make kids laugh. And there are laughs galore in this popular book, series. Wayside School was supposed to be 30 classrooms, one story high; but by mistake it was built straight up 30 stories. It is about teachers who turn students into apples and kids who have extraordinary imaginations.... An easy read and so funny ......
The Sideways Stories From Wayside School is a popular series of 3 books by Louis Sachar. Sideways Stories From ,Wayside School is Falling Down, and Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger
    
Available from the School Library .


Enjoying reading your responses to the quiz question  .....
"If you were an author what would your Pseudonym be?.....
Before next weeks Lit Club , consider confirming what your pseudonym would be and  share it with us on the blog???

Saturday, 8 March 2014

Session Four - Friday 7 March 2014

Great to see the last of the passports being handed in. Thanks. I hope you all noticed the photos on the library windows from the Holiday Competition. Names will go in a draw and be drawn out next week at Assembly for the book voucher prize.

Kids Lit Quiz
We are beginning to prepare for the Kids Lit Quiz. There will be two this year - The year 7/8's received a notice about this today. The notice is available in the news centre of the school website. The Year 5/6 quiz will be held at school and we will invite Hoon Hay school to enter as well.


What did we talk about today?

  • Pseudonyms - is a made-up name used by a person to conceal his/her identity. Most commonly associated with writers and are referred to as "pen names."

We have added a page for pseudonyms - click the tab at the top of this post to find out more about authors who use pen names.


This Week's Book

Liar & Spy - Rebecca Stead


When seventh grader Georges (the s is silent) moves into a Brooklyn apartment building, he meets Safer, a twelve year old coffee-drinking loner and self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer's first spy recruit. his assignment? tracking the mysterious Mr X who lives in the apartment upstairs. Bit as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend?


We have a copy of this book in our library. Watch the trailer


Rebecca Stead won the Newbury Medal for her book When You Reach Me in 2010.

Mary Poppins


Siobhan introduced us to Mary Poppins - written by PL Travers and talked about the Movie Saving Mr Banks.

Saving Mr Banks is the story of how the movie Mary Poppins came to be.

from wikipedia:

"When Walt Disney's daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers' "Mary Poppins," he made them a promise-one that he didn't realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation."


The Diary of Anne Frank




from wikipedia

The Diary of a Young Girl (also known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Tell us what you think about the books we are choosing for Lit Club sessions, do you have any suggestions for books you would like us to introduce? Join in, comment, let us know what you are thinking.